While asserting that the government remains committed to the disinvestment of Air India, Union minister Jayant Sinha told the Rajya Sabha that the national carrier has shown "considerable improvement" in operational and financial parameters in the recent past.

Then Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry and the board had deliberated at length who the new CEO of this key arm of the conglomerate should be, before deciding on Butschek, considered an expert in change and transformation.

After no bidders put in their Expression of Interest (EoI) for the strategic disinvestment of Air India and its two subsidiaries last month, the civil aviation ministry is now gathering inputs from transaction advisor to understand the reasons on the failure to attract bidders.